NPIA develops new IT solution to improve the management of information

The Code List Management Service (CLMS) developed by the NPIA, has been endorsed by the Cabinet Office as an exemplar (a good example of best practice) for wider re-use across government.

CLMS is an innovative information service designed to manage data standards and the way they are used to build new systems and link them together.

Following widespread interest across government and the private sector, the NPIA is seeking to bring the service to a wider market. It is in the process of selecting a partner to take over and manage CLMS as a commercial service.

The commercialisation process will be in line with the Treasury's Wider Markets Initiative, which now enables government departments to realise the value of their assets. Any profits made on the NPIA's investment will be ploughed back into improving technology across policing.

Users will be able to manage, maintain and publish their data standards. Using the Service, they can then share information more easily than before. Police officers using the service have benefited by being able to send and receive data and view key intelligence more easily.

Coded lists are used in all databases to store information in a structured way, saving space and allowing for efficient searching. For example, police information systems use around a thousand lists, from the very simple e.g. Gender (1=Male, 2=Female, 9=Unknown) to the very complex (the list of criminal offences has 13,000 codes).

Additional benefits of CLMS include:
• better data quality and search accuracy
• more efficient distribution of lists
• less duplication of information across the police service

Richard Earland, Chief Information Officer at the NPIA said: "The NPIA is proud to have developed this system on behalf of the police service and to be leading the way in bringing innovative solutions to government and the private sector.

"Better information sharing means better policing. Information is vital to help police officers do their job and bring offenders to justice. Providing officers with timely and accurate information, allows them to make informed operational decisions.

"CLMS also advances the government's agenda for better common data standards by providing a service for distributing data more efficiently."
CLMS is being used by every police force as part of the process of preparing data for sharing via the forthcoming Police National Database (PND), which will enable police forces to access and share intelligence held on force's local systems.